Late Fame Director Kent Jones Interview
Late Fame tells a story of an artist who is finally “found” later in his life. Throughout the film, the lead character, Ed Saxberger (played by Willem Dafoe), must navigate the modern art world. The same group of artists yearns for the times that Saxberger comes from and the artists who existed in the circles in New York City at that time. In Late Fame, we see director Kent Jones navigate modern New York and its inhabitants. We were lucky enough to chat with Kent Jones about the film. Listen to our interview here.
Kent Jones explains why Dafoe was essentially the only viable choice to play a poet-lead since Dafoe genuinely performs poetry and previously played Pasolini. He ties the thought together by tying it back to a Robert De Niro line about Brando having “the poetry of his whole being.” The conversation moves into the film’s love-letter-to-New-York quality, with the director talking about decades of watching the city change, the presence of the past haunting the characters (especially in Soho, tied to Dafoe’s own history with the Wooster Group), and how gentrification and the “attention economy” have reshaped what it even means to try to make art in New York now.
Legendary New York poet Ed Saxberger’s forgotten works captivate an eccentric group of young creatives, reigniting his artistic passion. Their intrigue intertwines with the bewitching presence of actress Gloria.